‘Mr. Merton has the poems,’ said Mr. Macrae.  ’What became of my daughter?’

‘I don’t know, I was unconscious.’

‘What kind of boat was it?’

‘An ordinary coble, a country boat.’

‘What kind of looking men were they?’

’Rough fellows with beards.  I only saw them when they first passed us at some distance.  Oh, my head!  Oh damn, how these bites do sting!  Get me some ammonia; you’ll find it in a bottle on the dressing-table.’

Mr. Macrae brought him the bottle and a handkerchief.  ’That is all you know?’ he asked.

But Blake was babbling some confusion of verse and prose:  his wits were wandering.

Mr. Macrae turned from him, and bade one of the men watch him.  He himself passed downstairs and into the hall, where Lady Bude was standing at the window, gazing to the north.

‘Indeed you must not watch, Lady Bude,’ said the millionaire.  ’Let me persuade you to take something and go to bed.  I forget myself; I do not believe that you have dined.’  He himself sat down at the table, he ate and drank, and induced Lady Bude to join him.  ’Now, do let me persuade you to go back and to try to sleep,’ said Mr. Macrae gently.  ’Your husband is well accompanied.’

‘It is not for him that I am afraid,’ said the lady, who was in tears.

‘I must arrange for the day’s work,’ said the millionaire, and Lady Bude sighed and left him.

‘First,’ he said aloud, ’we must get the doctor from Lairg to see Blake.  Over forty miles.’  He rang.  ‘Benson,’ he said to the butler, ’order the tandem for seven.  The yacht to have steam up at the same hour.  Breakfast at half-past six.’

The millionaire then went to his own study, where he sat lost in thought.  Morning had come before the sound of voices below informed him that Bude and Merton had returned.  He hurried down; their faces told him all.  ‘Nothing?’ he asked calmly.

Nothing!  They had rowed along the loch sides, touching at every cottage and landing-place.  They had learned nothing.  He explained his ideas for the day.

’If you will allow me to go in the yacht, I can telegraph from Lochinver in all directions to the police,’ said Bude.

‘We can use the wireless thing,’ said Mr. Macrae.  ’But if you would be so good, you could at least see the local police, and if anything occurred to you, telegraph in the ordinary way.’

‘Right,’ said Bude, ‘I shall now take a bath.’

‘You will stay with me, Mr. Merton,’ said Mr. Macrae.

‘It is a dreadful country for men in our position,’ said Merton, for the sake of saying something.  ‘Police and everything so remote.’

’It gave them their chance; they have waited for it long enough, I dare say.  Have you any ideas?’

‘They must have a steamer somewhere.’

‘That is why I have ordered the balloon, to reconnoitre the sea from,’ said Mr. Macrae.  ’But they have had all the night to escape in.  I think they will take her to America, to some rascally southern republic, probably.’